Kick-Ass Soundtrack

The Kick-Ass soundtrack. With the inclusion of one song, Matthew Vaughn’s third film can (perhaps surprisingly) be said to have one of the best soundtracks of the year. The song rears its beautiful head half-way through the album at track number 7. It’s The Dickies’ version of the Banana Splits theme, a two minute burst of gleeful throw-your-limp-body-all-over-the-room-and-forget-your-troubles-you-frustrated-adolescent type punkishness from the self-proclaimed first Californian punk band, and the fact that it soundtracks an extremely funny scene of tongue-in-cheek ultra-violence committed by an 11-year-old girl just makes it all the better.

The rest of the record provides a mix of upbeat raucousness from venerable outfits (The Prodigy, Primal Scream, New York Dolls) and a few pleasing curveballs (Sparks, Elvis, Ennio Morricone), so The Dickies aren’t holding the Kick-Ass soundtrack up all by themselves, which is good, because most of their members are either knackered from thirty years of touring or dead. Which makes it harder to fathom why Mika was hired for the theme song – and why he’s been encouraged to produce such a facile chunk of house music (perhaps he doesn’t need encouragement, snort guffaw). It’s not only low-rent school disco schlock, it’s out of step with the rest of the soundtrack, on several levels. True, it does have the kind of camp tongue-in-cheek element common in most of Mika’s pop minstrelling, which is tonally appropriate to the film, but that’s about all you can say for it. When he laspes into his Freddie Mercury impression, it just serves to remind you by comparison how great Queen were at soundtracks.

But then I suppose Mika’s more reliable to commission than Primal Scream or The Dickies. If you commissioned the Scream you’d probably have to worry about Manny and Bobby Gillespie divvying up the advance for skunk and ketamine, and that’s the kind of financial fretting that makes executive producers frown into their coco pops. And most of The Dickies are dead, which again counts as a negative for profitability predictions. Whereas Mika has nice curly hair and, I imagine, would be less likely to stab you in the face with a beer bottle if you offered him a herbal tea than any of the other aforementioned musicians. Which, ironically, makes him less suited to soundtrack a film in which an 11 year old girl cuts off people’s limbs in a humorous fashion. The movie biz, eh? It’s a mess of contradictions.

My advice for tackling this kind of financially motivated musical foul-up is two-fold. First, buy the Kick-Ass soundtrack, because it’s 90% great, and it’s a cold day in hell when a mainstream film uses an original 70s punk single and it doesn’t feel hideously derisive. Secondly, find Mika’s postal address and send him a letter (a polite letter mind, for the lad knows not what he does) outlining the societal benefits of generic house music, of which there are none, versus the societal benefits of the various local punk rock scenes that sprung up from London to Manchester to New York to LA, of which there are many. It won’t make a difference of course, because he probably likes the music he makes, and it makes him lots of money. But giving happy-go-lucky financially successful emotionally vacant pop vocalists a stern talking to is exactly what The Dickies would want.

What’s the track used in the big fight scene with all the flashing strobe lights (trying not to give away any of the plot)? It’s a music only piece, and I know I know it, but can’t think of what it is. Really bugging me! Thanks

I really like that music, too. It sounds like a blend between “In The House – In A Heartbeat” by John Murphy (used in both movies, “28 Days” and “28 Days Later” as well as in during the scene where Big Daddy kills some of D’Amico’s men) and it’s available individually on ITunes as well as the on the “28 Days” soundtrack – and another piece of music not available on the KickA** soundtrack – Bummer! That’s a shame because whatever it is, it rocks!! One song listed in the movie credits but not on the soundtrack is “For The Both Of Us”. Perhaps that’s it but it’s not available on ITunes and I’m unable to find it so far. If anyone knows where it can be listened to, please let us all know.

Cancel my last comment because here is the music we’re looking for! It’s a blend of “Sunshine (Adagio in D Minor)” and “Kanada’s Death Pt.2″, both by John Murphy. They’re available on the “Sunshine” soundtrack but ITunes makes you buy the whole album for $9.99 – hate that ITunes does that, but they’re worth it, and there are a couple of others on that soundtrack that are good, too. Perhaps they can be bought by themselves elsewhere.

I’ve seen the previews to this movie and I must say I’m impress. It really is gonna kick-ass, but do you think its possible if it was made into a videogame? I think it would be off the chain if it could happen.

I honestly have no idea why Mika is involved. Fair enough, he’s a mainstream popstar who might widen the audience of ‘Kick-Ass’ but really the song doesn’t fit with the tone at all. Which is why I guess they relegated it to the middle of the end credits sequence.

The soundtrack is also missing the epic John Murphy piece from Sunshine that is used during one of the best scenes of the film. (Eleanor – I think the track is called Kaneda’s Death, if you search through YouTube for “John Murphy Sunshine” you’ll definitely get hold of the right one.)

im old enough to remember the dickies the first time round, bougtht their greatest hits cd, and went to see them live in newcastle uk last year, they were as fit and crazy as ever and sounded just as good, u young punks should give them a listen!! p.s. hit girl has inspired this 4ft 11ins old ex punk to dress as her for fancy dress this weekend!!! lol. kick ass does just that!!!!!!

Anyone know the name of the song near the end of the film when hitgirl is in the penthouse and she is behind a statue with loads of lads filling up the hallway full of bookshelves on either side then it breaks into that bad reputation song???